Moving on, coming home
by zcbmnvx
Summary: Conan is no longer able to return to his old self, so he and Haibara must come to terms with the loss of their past selves and move on. Conan has been acting more his "age", and Kogoro and Ran have been growing more attached. Will Conan's parents let go as Shinichi has? Its short and not done. Please message me if you want to Adopt the story.


This is obviously not canon, and I don't own Detective Conan. This is in a time where the antidote to aptx 4869 has stopped working on Conan and Haibara has stopped making it, so both she and Conan (after lots of therapy and letting go of their old selves) decide to slowly let Shinichi die. Conan will call Ran himself as Shinichi sometimes, but to properly let him die, he will have someone he trusts call them both and ask to speak to conan just to make it seem like Shin is checking up on his little cousin and getting some closure. Conan meanwhile starts acting more his "age" and hanging out with his school friends more.

* * *

Running down the street, Conan turns his head every few feet to make sure his friends were still behind him, calling out to them every once and a while to keep up. Conan was very excited about today, A team of mystery novelists had been working on a new series of books that would be getting a movie adaptation, and today the books were being released in limited numbers. Each of them writing a different book in the five-part series and each writer being backed by a different popular bookstore to sell their up and coming novels as an event to celebrate, their going to start selling the newest mystery novels today, and the first 100 people to get their books would get them signed by the author themselves.

Conan did the math, and if he ran after school. The book stores would have each sold about 150 copies, he might not get his book signed, but the authors would need about 45 minutes to get everything packed up, so he could possibly still get the chance to meet at least 1 of them. He had five stores to get to, each releasing a different book, and each store only getting 400 books each, if he ran to all 5 places, Conan could just barely get every new book now.

As he mulled over how happy he would be with his books, Conan neglected to hear his friends calling his name to warn him against the roadblock. Suddenly, Conan found himself being tackled to the ground and was then hastily lifted up, Conan looked up at the owner of the arms he was currently wrapped in to see Mitsuhiko looking ahead worriedly.

"Mitsuhiko! What are you doing? We'll be late at this rate. The whole schedule will be thrown off! We need to keep going." Conan growled as he struggled in his friend's arms.

Tightening his hold around his small friend and crush, Mistuhiko stood up and looked down at Conan. "Conan, look in front of us." Mits said calmly, but with a slight quiver of worry and breathlessness from sprinting to Conan lacing his voice. For as smart and brave as Conan was, he sure could be dense sometimes.

Doing as he was told, Conan looked forward towards the caution tape he swears was not there a moment ago, and beyond that the barriers surrounding a large pit taking up the whole street. The smell of hot tar met his senses and the sound of power tools finally reached the small detective, making him realize what his friends had just saved him from and bringing him back to reality.

"Oh," Conan said smartly as he looked back to notice that the rest of their friends had caught up at some point. "Sorry guys, I was a bit distracted." The detective apologized to his friends.

Standing back up, the group was on their way again. Taking a long detour around the construction work. Conan was made to hold Mitsuhiko's hand the rest of the time at the request of his friends to keep him out of trouble, much to the delight of Mitsuhiko. Finally reaching their destination, Conan dragged Mitsuhiko into the store and up to the counter. Letting go of Conan's hand, Mits grabbed a nearby stool and brought it over to Conan, who took it with thanks and a smile before climbing up and pressing the bell on the counter to call the employee in the back. A kind-looking man stepped out onto the counter, Conan quickly asked, "Excuse me, sir, but do you still have any of the new mystery novels from the event today?"

Smiling softly down at the group of kids the man gave a remorseful reply. "Sorry kiddo, but that book sold out about 30 minutes ago." Giving their thanks, the group left the store. "Sorry you missed the first book Conan, but I have to get home now. My mommy texted earlier and I need to be home soon. I'm gonna have to break off the chase. Bye, everyone." Ayumi said as she ran off.

Continuing the search, the group was met with the same thing at the other stores. Each time the group dwindling, losing Ai at the second stop, and Genta at the third. As the last two of the mystery boys left the fourth stop, Mits looked at the downtrodden Conan. Feeling his phone buzz, Mits took it out to look. After texting back and forth for a couple of seconds, Mits put his phone back into his pocket and turned to Conan.

"You going home now too?" Conan asked, his voice sounding just as completely exhausted as he looked.

"No, that was Ran-chan, she was wondering if I was with you. Apparently, your phone is off." Mistuhiko responded while taking Conans in his own again and leading him down the street. "She asked where we were and told us to head over to the police department when were done. The last book shop is on the way there, so let's go!" Mits said enthusiastically. Trying to raise Conans spirits. Though his efforts were only met with a sad silence.

After a bit of walking, the two approached the last bookstore on the list. Walking in, Conan stood silently near the door while Mits went up to the counter. "Excuse me Miss, but do you happen to have any of the newest mystery novels left?" Mits asked as he looked back at Conan, who was not crouching on the floor tracing lines on the wooden floor boards.

"Sorry dear, but I've already done a storage check. I'm positive there are no others left." The woman said, giving the two detectives a sucker as they made their way out the door.

Once again taking Conan's hand in his own, Mitsuhiko began to walk the both of them to the police station. Knowing that Conan wouldn't be in the mood for talking, Mits just offered his silent condolences. Walking in the station and heading up to the floor where the first division offices were held, Mits and Conan headed to the main hall where the detectives usually gather.

"Hey kid, what took you so long!" Mori Kogoro called out when he caught sight of the two children. When Conan didn't respond, Kogoro lifted the child by the back of his shirt and held him at eye level. "What's your problem kid." The sleeping sleuth asked. When Conan again didn't respond, Mitsuhiko answered for him.

"Conan and I have been running around town all afternoon going to a bunch of different book stores to get Conan all five of the new releases for that new mystery series. But there was road work that we didn't plan for in our route that made us late and Conan missed it. Those books were limited addition and won't be available again until the movie comes out next year and even then, they'll only have 20 copies and the chances of us getting one is really slim. This was an early access first come first served event, and Conan is really upset about it." Mitsuhiko explained.

Kogoro gave the little boy in his hands a look over before he pulled the child to his chest, where Conan buried his face in the older man's neck. "You really must be upset and tired. You barely tolerate anyone holding you. Lets go." Kogoro gruffed as he began to walk back down the hall, Conan in his arms and Mits following behind. As they walked into a board room, the quiet group was bombarded by the chatter of the loud room full of the first division team.

"Mey Mouri, what happened to getting the pork buns?" Inspector Meguire asked through the room.

"I got a couple of kids instead." Mouri said as he shut the door to the room, as he turns around, he sees Sato and Tagaki walking towards him. "Hey Takagi, hold him for a sec while I go get our stuff. Everythings in your office right, Sato?" Kogoro asked as he passed over a still very quiet and grumpy Conan. Everyone in the room knew something was wrong with Conan when he allowed himself to be passed around without complaint.

As Kogoro left the room, Sato leaned closer to Tagaki and Conan to ask, "Hey Conan-cun, what's wrong?" Seeing that Conan still wasn't going to talk, Mits once again spoke for him. Telling the story of their fruitless journey for the second time.

As he ended the tale, Kogoro re-entered the room with a large box in his hold, pork buns balanced on top. Walking over to the table in the middle of the room, the man placed the box on the table. "Hey Conan, come here." Kogoro called. As Takagi placed Conan on his feet, the small boy slowly made his way to the detective. Once the boy was within arms reach, Kogoro lifted the boy and placed him on the table. "Look in the box." He said gruffly, nudging Conan a bit towards it. Caving in, Conan stepped over to the large box and looked in, not noticing the room had quieted down or the happy glances the adults were sharing.

As Conan reached his arm into the tall box, Mits got closer to the table to watch. Conan lifted his hand from the box and looked at the abject he pulled from it. Suddenly, a large smile broke out on the boys face as he shouted. "This is one of the books I was hunting for! How did you get it?!" He squealed happily.

"Maguire, the force, and I were out on the field today. When we were done, everyone was spread out and some were near those book stores you always go to. You've been taking about getting these for weeks so we figured we would pick them up for you." Kogoro explained.

"I've been waiting for this for months. I looked, but they were not offering any hold options for the books. I can't believe you got one. Thank you so much!" the happy little boy hollered as he hugged the book in his arms.

"Hey Conan, that's an awfully big box, what else is in it? Mistuhiko asked as he looked up at his small friend. Before Conan could reach into the box again, Tagaki lifted him again and placed him on the floor in the middle of the room where everyone could watch the boy. Following, Mits went to Conan to help him reach deeper into the large box. As the room went back to its loud chatter, the two boys went through the box, pulling out the four other books he wanted, as well as stuffed figures of Sherlock and Watson, and action figurine of the main characters of the five books. After reading the book descriptions, the two boys began playing with the toys, acting out what they thought would happen in the book.

After hours of playing, reading, and theorising, the two boys laid on the floor, asleep. The books, many notes they had written, and toys stacked carefully around them. At some point while the boys were playing, Kogoro called Mitsuhiko's mother to let her know where he was. A few minutes after they had fallen asleep, She arrived to pick Mits up. Pulling him away from Conan proved to be a bit difficult as they realized he had a really firm grip on Conan's hand and shirt, successfully holding the smaller to his chest. After some gentle pulling and prodding, Mits' mother was able to take him home.

After cleaning up a bit, Kogoro gathered Conans new things and placed them back into the box before taking the box to the police car that would be taking them home and going back up for Conan. Once they arrived home, Kogoro entered his office with Conan still asleep. Putting the box down, he headed up the stairs to their home, where he was greeted with the chatter of his daughter Ran and her three friends Sonoko, Kazuha, and Heiji. "Hey, quiet down, I don't want him waking up." Kogoro whispered as he shut the door.

"Welcome home dad, how did your little distraction party go?" Ran asked coming to greet him at the door.

"It went well, did you finish cleaning out the old storage room?" Kogoro asked as he walked over to his room, which, for the time being, he shared with conan. Seeing that Conans mat was gone, along with everything else of his, Kogoro walked back out, still holding Conan.

"Ya we did dad." Ran explained as her father closed his door again. "We even repainted the walls. Sonoko called over her room designer and we helped him decorate the room, now it looks like London in there. And the stuff you ordered came in early! Everything is set up." Ran said excitedly while still trying to keep quiet. Headed up the stairs, Kogoro opened the door to what used to be an extra room they used for storage, but was now Conan's room. The ceiling was a light blue color, and each of the walls had a London theme. The wall near the window having Big Ben, the left having the London eye, and the right having the city, The room has a white dresser along the wall the door was on and there was a large bookshelf against the right wall, along with a cozy looking reading corner. With a small trundle against the back wall and a toy chest by the left wall.

The room looked wonderful, just perfect for the little detective. Moving over to the bed and pulling back the dark blue soccer ball themed sheets, Kogoro laid Conan down and then moved to the dresser to find the boys pajamas. Changing him and putting his cloths into a light blue laundry basket, Kogoro tucked Conan in and turned on the night light on his dresser that displayed stars on the roof, and shut the door. Going back to the living room, Kogoro finds the teens sitting on the couch, going through the cardboard box Kogoro had left downstairs.

With Heiji looking at the books and the girls looking at the toys, Heiji comments, "I thought we already got him enough books, now he has more. At this rate, he's not going to have any room for anything else."

Shaking his head, Kogoro took his phone out to make a call. Dialing the number, the detective steeled his nerves. "Hello? Good afternoon Professor, I had a favor to ask. Do you happen to have the number of Conan's parents? We haven't seen nor heard from them since they picked Conan up for all of a day before bringing him back. I'd like to ask them a very important question."


End file.
